Syria: memories of a trampled democracy in Udine

University conference dedicated to country's future

(ANSAmed) - UDINE, MAY 7 - ''I haven't learned anything about
the history of democracy in Syria at school, because all the
school talked about was President Hafez al Assad.'' This remark
was made by Eva Ziedan, a Syrian archaeologist at the University
of Udine, during the conference ''Syria, what future?''. But
little has changed since Ziedan went to school, and Syria is
still ruled by a dictator of the Assad family, only now the son
of Hafez has taken over. The regime is responsible for the
ongoing violent repression of the anti-government protest that
started early in 2011, on the wave of the uprisings in Tunisia
and Egypt. Eva Zeidan was born in 1984, when Hafez al Assad had
been president for 14 years. Her uncle, Faek al Hawje, a
communist dissident, has spent many years in prison, since Eva
was a little girl. She was even told that her uncle was
''abroad''.
''At school we had to salute the flag every morning and sing
the praises of President Assad and the Baath power (ruling for
half a century). Assad was a legend for me and I wrote poetry
about him,'' the archaeologist continued. ''Then one day they
told me that my uncle was not abroad but in prison. That he had
been arrested for spreading manifestos of the communist party,
which is illegal like all other parties. My infancy took a
different turn that moment.'' The young Ziedan stopped writing
poetry about President Assad and started reading the documents
written by Faek al Hawje and other uncles when they were young.

The speech of Ziedan coincided with the Syrian general
elections, which many have called a ''farce''. It was one of
five speeches during the conference organised by professor
Daniele Morandi Bonacossi, who was also one of the speakers and
who teaches archaeology and Near East ancient art history at the
University of Udine. ''Story of a trampled democracy'' is the
title of Ziedan's story. She told the audience about the period
of democracy in independent Syria: from 1946, the year the
French mandate ended, to 1958, when Egyptian president Gamal
Abdel basically annexed the Syrian territories, formally making
them part of the United Arab Republic. That spirit of democracy,
the archaeologist continued, already surfaced during the years
of the mandate, when Syrian partisans from all regions,
confessions and ethnic groups, started their battle against the
French. After years of mainly political struggle they succeeded
in making the country independent. ''The Syrian Republic has had
a parliament for years, with many different political parties.

It was a real Republic,'' said Ziedan, referring to the absence
of individual and political freedom in Syria under the Baath
party and the al Assad family. ''At that time, the national
assembly was a real parliament and women were giving voting
right in 1949 (three years after Italy),'' the archaeologist
pointed out, showing a rare photograph taken in 1930 at the
university of Damascus during a conference of Arab women. The
picture shows dozens of women posing with the flag of their
country of origin.
''Like today Syria was a country with a Muslim majority. But
in those years a Christian, Fares al Khuri, had been elected as
head of state.'' But the constitution that was 'reformed' in the
past months, an initiative of the 'secular' president Bashar al
Assad, still states that the head of state must be a Muslim.